Liberal Democrats and Andrew Duff MEP fight for Patient Rights

8.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Oct 2006

Liberal Democrats and Andrew Duff MEP fight for Patient Rights

Liberal Democrats across the East of England are backing calls by local MEP Andrew Duff to see the creation of a European Patient Rights Charter.

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Allan Witherick who represents St Albans City Hospital said: 'If you get treated in a hospital in Europe outside of the UK and something goes wrong you can find yourself thrown into legal limbo. This can be a nightmare for individuals and their families which has no real answer currently. I hope that a European Patient Rights Charter will help to ensure decent standards both here in the UK and also provide reassurance to those who find themselves in hospital, be it on holiday or avoiding NHS waiting lists, in other countries of the European Union.'

Andrew Duff Euro MP for the East of England added:

'If something goes wrong there is little clarity around compensation and duty of care for cross-border healthcare. There should be EU-wide procedures and compensation rules to help protect patients where ever they are treated.'

Editors Note:

A month into the start of the public consultation on cross-border health services, European Liberal Democrats are pushing for inclusion of patient rights in the draft legislation. An oral question tabled on the 24/10/06 asked the Commission how it plans to address a number of key areas in its upcoming proposal on patient mobility.

On 26 September the European Commission started a public consultation on how to ensure legal certainty regarding cross-border health services under Community law. The consultation process will last until 31 January

2007 and will lead to Commission proposals later in the year.

It addresses the conditions according to which cross-border health care must be authorised and paid for, the provision of information to patients about treatments available in other MS, which health authority is responsible for supervising cross-border health care in different circumstances, responsibilities for any harm caused by healthcare and compensation.

The objective of this initiative of the Commission is to provide legal clarity and certainty regarding the application of the treaty provisions on free movement of health services following the ECJ rulings in that area.